.. _computing_options:

================================
Computing Options [2014 version]
================================

All of the software we will use this year is open source, so in principle
you can install it all on your own computer.  See :ref:`software_installation` 
for some tips on doing so.

However, there are several reasons you might want to use a different
computing environment for this class:

* To avoid having to install many packages yourself,
* To make sure you have the same computing environment as fellow students 
  and the TAs,
* To have access to a multi-core machine if your own computer is has a
  single processor, since much of the course material concerns parallel computing.
* To work together during lab sessions.

.. _options_smc:

SageMathCloud
--------------

This is the recommended computing platform  and what we will mostly use
during the T-Th lab sessions.  SageMathCloud is a freely
available cloud computing resource developed by the Sage Team, led by
Prof. William Stein in the UW Mathematics Department.  You can easily create
an account at `SageMathCloud <https://cloud.sagemath.com/>`_.

You should create an account using your UW email address `netid@uw.edu`.
This will make it easiest for us to add you as a collaborator on projects.

All of the software needed this quarter is installed on SageMathCloud.

Use of SageMathCloud will be demonstrated during the first Lab session on
Tuesday April 1, 2014.  

For some tips on using it, see :ref:`smc`.


.. _options_vm:

Virtual Machine
---------------

If you want to be able to compute on your own computer but don't want to
try installing all the necessary software packages 
individually, another option is to
run a *virtual machine* using the VirtualBox software.  See :ref:`vm`
for more information.

Amazon Web Services
-------------------

Another possibility for cloud computing is to use Amazon Web Services.  
An Amazon Machine Image (a virtual machine) has been created that has all
the software needed for this class.  For more detail on how to launch an
instance running this AMI, see :ref:`aws`.